Zolsha — Restaurant in England

Attended once. Won't be visiting again.

2 people attending on a Wednesday evening. Heard good things about Zolsha, glorified even, thought we'd check it out since everyone in the local pubs were going on about it.

Spent 30 mins in the waiting area in a empty restaurant only to sit down at the same time as our starters came out. This was the highlight of the meal, couldn't fault the onion bhajis and paneer tikka and in hindsight we wished we had just gotten multiple starters.

Partner had a paneer dish and I had a "king prawn" dish (King Prawn Wurra).

Paneer main's sauce was lovely eventhough the paneer was cooked too much which resulted in it almost disintegrating in your mouth, turning to mush.

My "king prawn" dish was alien if anything, for £14.95 you'd expect king prawns, not whatever these over cooked, leathery, mangled (Squid? Chopped up prawn? Scampi tails?) pieces of white flesh were. I had 2 pieces and stopped as my stomach said no, (this was last night and I can tell you I haven't had a very pleasant evening). The sauce was unbelievably flat, I'm certain I was just eating red water, and for a medium dish I was shocked to actually feel no spice, no fragrance.

Closing comments: both mains were essentially poor for the price, flavourless, spice-less, especially the "king prawn" wurra. The starters were nice, would not go again.

So goes on the journey for a decent curry house...

In response to the owner;

P2: I understand the seating arrangements and the mysterious inner workings of how the restaurant system works, I promise.

P3: Service was speedy, I have had no issue with that at all, my concern was my "king prawn" dish as I am still feeling the after effects of this now. And yes the bread was eaten, as it was the only thing too eat a part from my partners main that wasn't going to turn my stomach further.

P4: I'd argue for a restaurant with 30+ covers that 4 tables is "empty"

Regardless, these are my opinions and mine alone, there are hundreds more that don't share these thoughts, thank you for your response but as I have had a bad experience with your food (not service) I won't...

Given the positive reviews, we thought we'd give this place a go - all those pictures and colours were a good sign of spice diversity and good recipes!

We ordered two different curries, as you can see in the pictures two very different colours... First up is consistency - both curries were very runny and when the plate was tilted water piled up on one side. The pots clearly hadn't been simmered or reduced properly, and we didn't order early in the evening either. Secondly, the colours, on pouring the vibrant red curry onto the plate it quickly became obvious this wasn't a colour from Indian spices used, but was actually food colouring. The chicken and the rice had a pink glow about them!

So when you add poor texture and food colouring what do you get? You guessed it, point three - the taste. Both tasted exactly the same, my wife and I closed our eyes and couldn't for the life of us tell the difference between the vibrant red and mango orange curries. What's worse, is they didn't even taste like a curry in the least. I couldn't define a single spice, my "medium" heat curry had ZERO heat, which is surprising since most places like this add heat to cover up lack of flavour. It was basically, a coloured watery paste that we paid £20+ for. If that's what you go for in an Indian, this is the place for you!!

Finally, to top it all off, the easiest thing on the menu...Garlic Naan. Had zero garlic, no herbs, and matched the curry perfectly with its bland and tasteless style.

If you like actual curry, and not this fake stuff most Indian restaurants seem to pass off in this area of Yorkshire, sorry but you'll need to keep looking since this is just one more to add to the "nope" list. If you don't actually know what curry tastes like, then go here - highly recommended! Grade A...

What to say about my visit. Visited on a Saturday, peak time, without a reservation. Was highly impressed when they sat us down in their waiting area, where you sit whilst they prepare your table. They came over, took a drinks order and returned a couple minutes with drinks and took our food order. 5 minutes later we were being sat down at our table as they brought out our starter. The starter was absolutely delicious, we had popadoms with a pickle tray And a mixed grill for 2. Portion size was quite good and food was nice. A short 10 minute wait and we were being served our mains. The curries were aromatic, the only negative was that my curry wasn't quite as spicy as I had hoped for it was closer to a medium than the hot advertised. Took a while after eating for me to be able to get someone's attention to receive the bill....